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I-10 mini-stack rollover creates 20-mile backup
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Eastbound Interstate 10 was closed after an early morning crash Tuesday, and five hours later rush-hour traffic was backed up nearly 20 miles.
A truck rolled over and spilled carpet strips and tacks about 4:30 a.m. near the mini-stack interchange where I-10, state Route 51 and Loop 202 converge in Phoenix.
Officers cited the trucker for driving too fast for conditions. Department of Public Safety officials said the driver, whose name they didn't release, took a curve too quickly, causing the truck's load to shift.
DPS officers diverted traffic off at the 16th Street exit.
"We had traffic from the inner loop past Estrella Mountain," said Lt. Jim Warriner, a DPS spokesman. "It was already backed up to the 75th Avenue exit at around 5 a.m. when I got on."
Warriner said early media reports of the incident helped drivers find alternative routes, such as Interstate 17. No injuries were reported.
Lars Jacoby, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Transportation, said about 20 members of the agency's emergency response team started clearing the tacks by hand as soon as they arrived at the site shortly after the incident.
ADOT later sent in sweepers, front loaders and a special unit with magnets to pick up any remaining tacks.
Jacoby said ADOT couldn't estimate how much time drivers lost Tuesday morning.
He said the stretch between 16th Street and Loop 202 handles about 290,000 vehicles per day.
Two lanes reopened by 9:30 a.m. while the HOV lane and the one closest to the median were reopened by 11 a.m.
The mini-stack's first ramps opened in 1990.
According to an ADOT freight analysis study released in February, the mini-stack was ranked as the fourth worst interchange bottleneck in the United States by the Federal Highway Administration.
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